The movie was pretty regal bling for its time. Orson Welles voiced Unicron. Leonard Nimoy was Galvatron and Eric Idle had a bit part. Judd Nelson was the RDJ of the time and taking on the relatively new role of Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime so the mass appeal was there for families across generations.

Personally I thought Robert Stack doing Ultra Magnus was awesome.

But the concepts were a bit too far into science fiction proper and younger minds at the time were wanting more pew pew and less reflections upon what it is to be a leader. They wanted "You've Got The Touch!" and for Starscream to betray Megatron at the last second (Again).

I think it's aged quite well and is probably a movie for men now to look back upon as oppose to the target audience of young boys seeing it for the first time.

But if we're talking making bank, it didn't work in the classic sense of having good returns at the time. The 2007 Michael Bay movie might have restarted the franchise but the OG crew who bought the toys and witnessed Grimlock becoming smart and sacrificing that for his creations have different memories of how it all started.

And that's before we bring Voltron, Gobots and Gatchaman into the mix to muddy the loyalties of certain children.

But the entire merch and fandom community probably started around that time and has only grown into a different beast now. Without any Atticus Finch's or Tex Avery's frameworks to guide young minds we have truly ended up with sexual deviants trying to ascribe perverted moral messages and failing at a ridiculous level.

But if this isn't your grandfather's [X], it certainly isn't anyone elses.